Category Archives: Sound

Love the recent holiday billboard ad for the beloved Coca-Cola brand! Having said that, whenever I see branding around the sound Mmm, for food and beverage products, even if it is only one Mmm, and not back-to-back Mmm, Mmms, I’m thinking old school: Campbell’s Soup. No wonder, Campbell’s M’M! M’M! GOOD! slogan has lasted nearly… Continue Reading

The Star Wars series is truly an exceptional franchise, having broken box office records, creating legions of fans, and bringing the idea of collateral merchandise licensing to an unprecedented level. Also, how many other films are top hits at the box office in three different decades, even when all you’ve done is add a few… Continue Reading

Can you feel it? All around the country, fields are being groomed, stenciled, and painted. Tonight, the college football season begins with Georgia State taking on Abilene Christian in what could be a preview of one of hundreds of games that most of us don’t really care about. But like so many fans around the country, I’ll… Continue Reading

When was the last time you thought about pigs? What do you think when you hear the word “pigs?” Or an OINK OINK noise? Or what about the angelic and oh-so-American, “SOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEYY!”? Well, the University of Arkansas contends that you’re probably thinking about the Arkansas Razorback sport teams. And they convinced the U.S. Patent and Trademark… Continue Reading

There aren’t too many things I enjoy more than speaking about the legal implications of branding. Our friends at BlackCoffee captured a talk I gave to a group of marketing types a while back, on black and white film (thank goodness), and they have graciously posted a 34 minute excerpt, here. Some of the topics I… Continue Reading

–Dan Kelly, Attorney If the Charlie Sheen train wreck has not offered enough fodder for your idle moments, this week Aflac fired Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of the Aflac Duck due to tasteless jokes that Gottfried tweeted in the wake of last week’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Where Sheen was the face of… Continue Reading

I’m happy to share with you that on Tuesday February 8, 2011, I’m speaking about one of my favorite topics, non-traditional trademarks, with my friends Linda McLeod of Finnegan Henderson and Stephen Feingold of Kilpatrick Townsend, in a webinar program put on by Strafford Publications, Inc. The webinar begins at 1:00 PM EST and Noon CST. Registration details… Continue Reading

–Dan Kelly, Attorney I’ve often thought that copy writers could do worse than to make a close study of some of Charles Dickens’ work. Perhaps too wordy a model for most copy, especially advertising and marketing copy, but he could paint a picture with words. [T]he people who were shovelling away on the housetops were… Continue Reading

–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney I have to give a shout out to my brother, Kevin, for finding and sending to me this wonderful bit of popular culture: Watching this, all I could think about was how many bits of the Super Mario Bros. Theme instantly evoke memories of playing this game as a kid. From the opening… Continue Reading

–Dan Kelly, Attorney I have been critical in the past of some of Apple’s apparent trademark gaffes (here, here, and here), but I do like the company’s products–I own two Apple computers and two iPods. (This represents great progress for me. In college, those of us in engineering referred to Macs as “MacIncrash” computers, having… Continue Reading

Brands communicate with the world through a series of message delivery systems such as broadcast advertising, web sites, company representatives and product interaction. These systems utilize brand signals to communicate. While these signals commonly take the form of brand names and logos, they can also extend into sight, sound, touch, taste, smell or even action… Continue Reading

Let’s revisit the topic of non-traditional "touch" trademarks today. Of all the traditional five human senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) and trademarks that can be perceived by one or more of those senses, touch, a/k/a tactile, a/k/a texture trademarks are just about as uncommon as any (taste, perhaps, being the least common). Indeed, back in 2006, Marty Schwimmer from The Trademark Blog… Continue Reading

–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of Method products. They are non-toxic, smell good, they come in the kind of stylish product packaging that you can display on any countertop, and they work. So it should come to no surprise that Method is a brand with fans. What other manufacturer of toilet bowl cleaner… Continue Reading

I often remind branding professionals that trademark law rewards their creativity. Some seem to perk up with this subtle encouragement. After all, everyone likes to be rewarded, right? Well, one of the unobvious rewards for creativity comes in the prompt timing of when trademark ownership begins. Being able to own and enjoy exclusive rights on… Continue Reading

There is certainly a lot of buzz in the news these days about “Stimulus Packages” and how they might be utilized around the globe to spur economic growth and permit us all to resume our active pursuit of prosperity. Let us not forget that a brand (and the underlying trademarks that provide for the legal protection… Continue Reading

Duets Blog Authors

Steve Baird

Just so you know, I'm all about brands and the law, both professionally and personally. I regularly annoy family and friends in retail stores by focusing on product labels—not to buy the product, but to read the fine print and ask, "Who owns these brands" and "Did they really register those marks?" More...

Jessica Gutierrez Alm

I wasn’t planning to be a lawyer. At least that was my thinking as I began law school. This degree was going to give me a leg up in my efforts to enter the business world. Lawyers live in the grey — where there’s never a right answer, only possibilities — and the favorite lawyer answer for any seemingly yes-or-no question: “it depends.” More...

Wes Anderson

As far back as I can remember, I've been fascinated with graphic design, visuals, and branding. I like to trace this back to my seventh birthday, when I was presented with a copy of Marc Okkonen’s Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century. More...

Tiffany Blofield

Although my initial career path was to be one of the Supremes (not the musically talented ones with platform shoes and sequins, but rather, the nine wearing sensible shoes and pressed black robes in DC), I will likely stay in Minnesota as I have never lived anywhere else. More...

Martha Engel

Although my interest in gadgetry and my aptitude for math eventually led me to become an engineer, my ad executive father and artistically gifted mother fostered an appreciation for the creative from a young age. More...

Brent Lorentz

Although I wish I could say my path to the law was the result of a lifelong dream or calling, it was more the result mere curiosity and an affinity for leather-bound books. More...

Timothy Sitzmann

I have always considered myself to be a creative person. Full disclosure: I'm not claiming that I've created anything good, merely that I have created things that exist.More...

Brad Walz

My law career started on the ice…as a defensive hockey player (we’re not talking professionally…and if I were, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into law). More...